News briefs

Aviation

Action against EU airline measure

China will not comply with the European Union (EU) demands asking Chinese airlines to follow Europe's lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions by joining a carbon trading system, and will take legal action at a future date against the plan, a senior official with China's top aviation industry body said on June 7.

Chai Haibo, deputy secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association (CATA), said the CATA and Air China, the country's flag carrier, will jointly file a lawsuit against the plan in Germany, but the time of that action has not yet been decided.

The EU will require all airlines flying to Europe from Jan 1 to be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), a system that compels polluters to buy permits for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit above a certain cap. Those who do not join the system will face punishment including fines and flight suspensions.

Mining

Website for mining rights trade

The Ministry of Land and Resources launched a website on June 7 to provide information about the country's mining rights trade and to make mining operations more transparent and fair.

The new portal is expected to prevent fake mining rights licenses by launching a search function. It enables users to get information about a particular mining project, including the licensee, the acreage of the project, and expiration date and location, by inputting the license numbers into the search engine.

Employment

Less interest in foreign firms

With the growth of the national economy and the continuous development of Chinese enterprises, more middle- and high-level professionals in China now prefer to work for domestic companies rather than foreign-owned enterprises, human resources experts said.

"Multinational companies have long been in a favorable position in the recruiting market due to their liberal reward and advanced management culture," said Chen Jiewei, senior consulting manager with China International Intellectech Corporation, a Shanghai-based HR services company.

"But over the past five years, Chinese companies have been doing excellently and many of them have been listed abroad. They have demonstrated their competitive strength," Chen said, "Now they can offer salaries and bonus plans that are competitive with foreign companies, which makes them increasingly attractive for high-level management professionals."

Construction

800 skyscrapers in China by 2015

China will be home to 800 skyscrapers in five years and within three years, a new skyscraper will cap its roof every five days, says the 2011 China Motian City List, compiled by the skyscrapers-focused culture website Motiancity.com using one year's data collection.

China has over 200 sky-high towers under construction in 2011, a number equal to the overall number of skyscrapers the United States has now.

It says except for the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, China claims half of the world's 10 tallest buildings: the second tallest, Taipei 101 in Taiwan; the third, the Shanghai World Financial Center; the fourth, the International Commerce Center in Hong Kong; the seventh, the Nanjing Greenland Financial Complex; and the ninth, the Guangzhou International Finance Center.

Environment

Rule to fight heavy metal pollution

Vice-Minister of Environmental Protection Li Ganjie said at a press conference that the State Council recently approved a plan for the treatment and reduction of heavy metal pollution for the 2011-2015 period.

Heavy metal pollution is a serious concern in China, with nine cases of lead poisoning occurring last year, Li said.

Li added that seven cases of lead poisoning already occurred between January and May of this year.

Li said that his ministry's recently issued circular on the management of lead storage batteries and the secondary lead industry, severe measures will be imposed on industries where heavy metals are frequently used in order to prevent heavy metal pollution.

Survey

Charities need more transparency

About 70 percent of netizens believe that legitimacy, transparency and honesty are essential for anyone doing charity work, according to a recent survey conducted by the China Youth Daily.

The survey also showed that about 47 percent of the respondents think that philanthropic donations should not be used as a tool for individuals or enterprises to make money or improve their image.

The online survey polled some 5,600 people, 80 percent of whom were aged between 20 and 50.

However, experts think it is acceptable for companies to treat philanthropy as a public relations strategy unless they abuse people's generosity or engage in fraud.

China Daily-Xinhua